A Must: Becoming friends with exercise

I decided to write about an article I read in the American Scientist magazine, written by P. Darrell Neufer and Frank Booth. The title of the article is "Exercise controls genes expression", and it was published on the January-February issue of 2005. In this article, it is explained the huge importance of skeletal muscle in our health and how it directly affects our well-being. 

The skeletal muscle is the largest is the largest tissue in our entire body. There are more than 640 muscles in this tissue, and this takes up to 30%-40% of our total weight. Nowadays, there's no need to be a professional athlete in order to have strong muscles, since most of our daily activities make them work. Of course, the amount of work they develop is not the same, and most people think that it is enough. Because of this underestimation, the lack of use of our muscle may have a role in the rise of chronic diseases.

When muscle activity takes place, thousand of genes modulate, but they can be divided into three categories. Firstly, there are the “stress-response” genes, which are activated during the post phase of physical activity. This encores proteins that usually appear when a person is under a stressful situation. Secondly, there are the “metabolic priority” genes, which make proteins that usually appear when there’s a change in the metabolism, such as when the blood glucose level becomes lower than usual. Thirdly, there are the "metabolic/mitochondrial enzyme", wich create proteins whose function is to create energy out of food.

All of this happens when you go jogging or running, or when you go swimming or riding your bicycle. Besides getting stronger and fit, you are also helping your system use genes to benefit you. Who would have thought all of this happened because of exercise?!